Category Archives: War & Peace

47, Obama, Putin, Ukraine, Uncategorized, War & Peace, War Notes, Zelenskyy

Do Ukraine’s Ceasefire Hopes Hang on Trump’s Nobel Fever Dreams?

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Ukraine: Maybe a short cease-fire, maybe not

By Gwynne Dyer –  Mar 14, 2025

What’s hard to keep in mind, with all the hype that’s flying around, is that there’s no particular reason for either side in the Ukraine war to want a cease-fire right now, let alone a full peace settlement. The only one who’s in a hurry is Donald Trump, and that’s just because he’s terminally impatient.

The war, which has just passed its third anniversary, is as deeply stuck in the mud as the First World War that it so closely resembles. Continue reading Do Ukraine’s Ceasefire Hopes Hang on Trump’s Nobel Fever Dreams? →

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Tom Fox – Quaker Peaceworker Murdered in Iraq March 10, 2006

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March 10: Remember Tom Fox

March 10 — how could I forget? How dare I fail to remember?

Nineteen years and four months ago, John Stephens and I began a blog site called freethecaptivesnow.org , as both a personal vigil and a community service, compiling and posting nightly updates of reports — or mostly the lack of reports — about the fate of four peaceworkers kidnapped in Iraq. They had been taken in Baghdad, and one of them, Tom Fox, was a Quaker and a friend of both John and me.

Continue reading Tom Fox – Quaker Peaceworker Murdered in Iraq March 10, 2006 →

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A Shadow on the Daffodils: Preaching from the Big Book of Nobody

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Daffs, going wild again.

 

This past First Day (Quaker talk for Sunday) I Zoomed into worship in my Friends meeting, the one out in the farmland of Flyover County, North By-God Carolina, where I missed one of my favorite annual scenes there: the appearance in the back 40 of a big unruly spread of wild daffodils. But I did hear a stirring message.

No one among the elders knows when or by whom the daffodils came. Their location, out behind the community building we fondly call The Hut, isn’t visible from the road, so passersby mostly miss the spread, too bad for them. Continue reading A Shadow on the Daffodils: Preaching from the Big Book of Nobody →

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“Peace” In Our Time? A Look Into Our Future

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As a retired antiwar activist, I have long called for big cuts in the war budget — and I long ago got used to being ignored, while war spending kept growing.

But today I looked up from the email inbox and glimpsed one of those “I-Never-Thought-I’d see this” sights —

Hegseth taking aim — for “peace”?? “Eight percent a year, or else.” (Or maybe  I need to clean my eyeglasses.)

Namely that in this anti-arms race I had suddenly fallen behind — wait for it — behind the Secretary of Defense, Trump’s own Crusader-in-Chief, Pete Hegseth.

Hegseth grabbed the lead by ordering military planners to send him budgets that cut eight percent of current spending per year for five years, which equals 40 percent of the total.

Continue reading “Peace” In Our Time? A Look Into Our Future →

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Pete Hegseth The Crusader Reveals the Two Truly-Madly-Deeply Lethal Loves of His Life

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In official statements, Pete Hegseth calls the first one, “Lethality.”

Usually it’s a dry, abstract word. A term that’s launched a thousand PowerPoint slide shows. It’s ideal for air-conditioned classrooms, lit by rows of long tubular fluorescent bulbs. Under the lights, as it is repeated, rows of men in uniform listen, many taking notes, or (if it’s shortly after lunch, struggleto keep their eyes open).

Or at a crowded congressional hearing. “If you’re confirmed as Secretary of Defense,” asked a U. S. Senator, “what would be your mission, Mr. Hegseth?”

It’s the first  significant noun he emits (after, of course, the name Trump), in a crisply-memorized litany:

“He, like me, wants a Pentagon laser-focused on lethality, meritocracy, war-fighting, accountability and readiness.”

Continue reading Pete Hegseth The Crusader Reveals the Two Truly-Madly-Deeply Lethal Loves of His Life →